Reminiscences of Dr. Langstaff
Horse and buggy days
Panels
Lacrosse in the old daysEveryday lifeStreet lightingChristmas timeHorse and buggy daysAnecdotesAdvent of horseless carriageLetters to the editor of "The Liberal", 1956 and 1957.
Dear Mr. Editor:
In this letter I aim at drawing attention to a number of items which might be of interest to your readers, comparing the present with the earlier horse and buggy days. We are apparently living in the “lap of luxury” with all the modern things of today. It might be fitting to “Count our blessings” by renewing in our minds some of the above mentioned which add to the joy of living, as follows: The automobile, radio, TV, hot and cold soft water in the bathroom, the kitchen and laun-dry, clothes washers, dryers, toasters, timers, egg beaters, dish washers, refrigerators, deep freeze, vacuum cleaners, no doubt the next thing will be Robots to do the baby sitting. Imagine every boy and girl on the street, owning a bicycle. In the boyhood days of the writer there was just one boy in the village who owned a bicycle. It was what was known as a “bone shaker”. It had wooden wheels with iron tires, a larger wheel in front and a smaller one behind, and had front wheel drive.
We boys would stand around waiting our turn to ride the contraption. When ridden on the wooden sidewalk, with, the boards laid crosswise, it gave one the feeling that his teeth were being shaken loose.
The writer was in London, England, in 1890, when the first bicycle came put with pneumatic tires. Almost immediately the price of the high bicycle, which was selling at around $100.00 dropped to zero in price.
The writer lived for the first 70 years of his life in the house occupied by Dr. James Langstaff.
In his boyhood days, some of the activities were as follow: In the summer cows had to be driven back and forth to the pasture. When old enough, the writer, had to help with the milking.
In the holidays I went to the farm part time, to drive the horse on the rake, drive the team when loading and build loads when I was old enough.
In the fall apples were picked up and put in heaps until a wagon box could be filled and then there was a trip to the cider mill. The apples were put in the grinder and I had the privilege of driving the horses round and round until the apples were ground into pummace. This pummace was then put into the press and several of us pushed the long arm around, pressing the cider out when it ran into a vat. The cider was taken home, boiled down, Tolman Sweet apples and spices added, making apple butter, which was stored in crocks for the winter.
We kept a hog, as many did in the village, and had a killing in the Fall. Here I assisted by helping with the scaldinf and removal of the hair. The animal was cut up, lard rendered, sausage and head cheese made, all for winter use.
The old house is a large one, 40’x52’ on the ground floor. It was heated with five wood burning stoves. It was a common chore to man one end of the cross-cut after school. We had lots of snow shovelling to do in the winter as the walks were long.
All was not work however. A visit to my uncles came in the summer, when we built a dam and had a large swimming pool, five feet deep and a raft to dive from. There was a wonderful apple orchard on the place with the best of snow and harvest apples. My uncle kept 30 swarms of bees and we had all the comb honey we could eat.
In the early days people worked 10 hours a day and six days a week; strikes were almost unknown.
The colored woman who came to wash and clean house, came at 8 o’clock and left at 6, wage 50c; mechanics received $2.90 a day; labourers 10c an hour, $1.00 a day; doctors for office visit, complete examination and the doctor supplying the medicine, 75c; doctor’s visit in the village, the doctor supplying the medicine, $1.00. Doctors were supposed to be rich in those days, when Charles Dickens spoke of the elderly doctor, who, after examining his patient, came down the stairs with a “wealthy squeak in his boots.” We are now passing through a period of inflation, when strikes are common and prices steadily rising. People like this spending spree as they are handling a lot of money (paper). We have had several of these periods, beginning around 1890. Each one has ended in a depression. We are told that this one cannot end in this way, because there are large numbers of people coming into the country and these will help develop our rich natural resources. One writer, on the other hand, claims that this is only inviting peaceful invasion, bringing in people to use up our natural resources.
The U.S.A. in the last 100 years, has advanced from a small population to around 160 millions. With this big beginning what is to hinder the nation reaching 400 million at the end of the next 100 years. Imagine the immense amount of property it will take to house this vast number. Add to this the room required for extra highways, railways, automobiles, to say nothing of the very great amount of soil erosion, which is washed into the rivers.
An interesting point will be whether the U.S.A will then be self-supporting from the standpoint of agriculture, or will it be on the downgrade. Nature always seems to follow a pattern of birth, development and decay.
In a lighter vein — I notice that nowadays no woman would think of going uptown without putting on a good supply of make-up. In the early days, a young woman with this make-up would hardly dare go up town, doubtless the people would stare and the boys whistle.
I have been trying out the new artificial ice at the arena and would say that it is close to perfection.
I have been asked a number of times how long I have been skating? Just 80 years ago, a young woman who worked for any parents put an old-fashioned pair of skates (wooden tops and steel blades) on me and carried me across the yard to юте ice that was under a shed. I hung on to the beam and slid dong, thus getting my first skating lesson.
When skating on the new ice it the arena, I thought how wonderful it would be if I could only turn the clock back, for the time being, and skate with the same agility that I did 70 years ago.
We certainly owe a sincere debt of gratitude to the public-minded citizens who have given so much of their valuable time and energy in producing this artificial ice, whereby the length of the skating season has been doubled and in allowing so many people to enjoy the health-giving exercise and recreation in outer cool air.
The first skating rink was built in Richmond Hill in or about the year 1880 on the old fair ground on Arnold St. It faced Arnold St., with its back to the school ground, and was somewhat shorter and narrower than the present Arena. We had some wonderful dress carnivals in those days. Only those with approved costumes were allowed on the ice for the first hour and a quarter. A great deal of ingenuity was shown in the make-up of these costumes. Quite a number rented fine costumes from Toronto. Our father always bought a family season ticket, price $4.50.
In the beginning of this letter mention was made of some of the wonderful labor saving devices we now enjoy. It might be appropriate to close by listing a few of the inconveniences we had in the older days.
We had wood burning stoves, the scrub board, the old-fashioned hand-powered washing machine, the Saturday night scrub in the family wash tub, the middle of the kitchen being the bath room. One might mention the all-year outside toilets. These abominations at 16 below zero — Oh! Brother!
Dear Mr. Editor:
In this letter I aim at drawing attention to a number of items which might be of interest to your readers, comparing the present with the earlier horse and buggy days. We are apparently living in the “lap of luxury” with all the modern things of today. It might be fitting to “Count our blessings” by renewing in our minds some of the above mentioned which add to the joy of living, as follows: The automobile, radio, TV, hot and cold soft water in the bathroom, the kitchen and laun-dry, clothes washers, dryers, toasters, timers, egg beaters, dish washers, refrigerators, deep freeze, vacuum cleaners, no doubt the next thing will be Robots to do the baby sitting. Imagine every boy and girl on the street, owning a bicycle. In the boyhood days of the writer there was just one boy in the village who owned a bicycle. It was what was known as a “bone shaker”. It had wooden wheels with iron tires, a larger wheel in front and a smaller one behind, and had front wheel drive.
We boys would stand around waiting our turn to ride the contraption. When ridden on the wooden sidewalk, with, the boards laid crosswise, it gave one the feeling that his teeth were being shaken loose.
The writer was in London, England, in 1890, when the first bicycle came put with pneumatic tires. Almost immediately the price of the high bicycle, which was selling at around $100.00 dropped to zero in price.
The writer lived for the first 70 years of his life in the house occupied by Dr. James Langstaff.
In his boyhood days, some of the activities were as follow: In the summer cows had to be driven back and forth to the pasture. When old enough, the writer, had to help with the milking.
In the holidays I went to the farm part time, to drive the horse on the rake, drive the team when loading and build loads when I was old enough.
In the fall apples were picked up and put in heaps until a wagon box could be filled and then there was a trip to the cider mill. The apples were put in the grinder and I had the privilege of driving the horses round and round until the apples were ground into pummace. This pummace was then put into the press and several of us pushed the long arm around, pressing the cider out when it ran into a vat. The cider was taken home, boiled down, Tolman Sweet apples and spices added, making apple butter, which was stored in crocks for the winter.
We kept a hog, as many did in the village, and had a killing in the Fall. Here I assisted by helping with the scaldinf and removal of the hair. The animal was cut up, lard rendered, sausage and head cheese made, all for winter use.
The old house is a large one, 40’x52’ on the ground floor. It was heated with five wood burning stoves. It was a common chore to man one end of the cross-cut after school. We had lots of snow shovelling to do in the winter as the walks were long.
All was not work however. A visit to my uncles came in the summer, when we built a dam and had a large swimming pool, five feet deep and a raft to dive from. There was a wonderful apple orchard on the place with the best of snow and harvest apples. My uncle kept 30 swarms of bees and we had all the comb honey we could eat.
In the early days people worked 10 hours a day and six days a week; strikes were almost unknown.
The colored woman who came to wash and clean house, came at 8 o’clock and left at 6, wage 50c; mechanics received $2.90 a day; labourers 10c an hour, $1.00 a day; doctors for office visit, complete examination and the doctor supplying the medicine, 75c; doctor’s visit in the village, the doctor supplying the medicine, $1.00. Doctors were supposed to be rich in those days, when Charles Dickens spoke of the elderly doctor, who, after examining his patient, came down the stairs with a “wealthy squeak in his boots.” We are now passing through a period of inflation, when strikes are common and prices steadily rising. People like this spending spree as they are handling a lot of money (paper). We have had several of these periods, beginning around 1890. Each one has ended in a depression. We are told that this one cannot end in this way, because there are large numbers of people coming into the country and these will help develop our rich natural resources. One writer, on the other hand, claims that this is only inviting peaceful invasion, bringing in people to use up our natural resources.
The U.S.A. in the last 100 years, has advanced from a small population to around 160 millions. With this big beginning what is to hinder the nation reaching 400 million at the end of the next 100 years. Imagine the immense amount of property it will take to house this vast number. Add to this the room required for extra highways, railways, automobiles, to say nothing of the very great amount of soil erosion, which is washed into the rivers.
An interesting point will be whether the U.S.A will then be self-supporting from the standpoint of agriculture, or will it be on the downgrade. Nature always seems to follow a pattern of birth, development and decay.
In a lighter vein — I notice that nowadays no woman would think of going uptown without putting on a good supply of make-up. In the early days, a young woman with this make-up would hardly dare go up town, doubtless the people would stare and the boys whistle.
I have been trying out the new artificial ice at the arena and would say that it is close to perfection.
I have been asked a number of times how long I have been skating? Just 80 years ago, a young woman who worked for any parents put an old-fashioned pair of skates (wooden tops and steel blades) on me and carried me across the yard to юте ice that was under a shed. I hung on to the beam and slid dong, thus getting my first skating lesson.
When skating on the new ice it the arena, I thought how wonderful it would be if I could only turn the clock back, for the time being, and skate with the same agility that I did 70 years ago.
We certainly owe a sincere debt of gratitude to the public-minded citizens who have given so much of their valuable time and energy in producing this artificial ice, whereby the length of the skating season has been doubled and in allowing so many people to enjoy the health-giving exercise and recreation in outer cool air.
The first skating rink was built in Richmond Hill in or about the year 1880 on the old fair ground on Arnold St. It faced Arnold St., with its back to the school ground, and was somewhat shorter and narrower than the present Arena. We had some wonderful dress carnivals in those days. Only those with approved costumes were allowed on the ice for the first hour and a quarter. A great deal of ingenuity was shown in the make-up of these costumes. Quite a number rented fine costumes from Toronto. Our father always bought a family season ticket, price $4.50.
In the beginning of this letter mention was made of some of the wonderful labor saving devices we now enjoy. It might be appropriate to close by listing a few of the inconveniences we had in the older days.
We had wood burning stoves, the scrub board, the old-fashioned hand-powered washing machine, the Saturday night scrub in the family wash tub, the middle of the kitchen being the bath room. One might mention the all-year outside toilets. These abominations at 16 below zero — Oh! Brother!
William H. Graham with his horse & buggy Details
